'We lacked humility' - Aguilar admits Cruz Azul players let Liga MX title change them

Cruz Azul defender Pablo Aguilar has admitted the team allowed winning the Liga MX title last season change its mentality in their Apertura opener last weekend.

With the weight of a 23-year championship drought no longer on the shoulders of every player who joins La Maquina, they have become too arrogant in their success, Aguilar told reporters, leading to a shock 2-0 defeat to Mazatlan last weekend.

So, the center back has asked for Cruz Azul to "go back to being that humble team" that triumphed last term over Santos Laguna.

What has been said?

"Honestly we did not enter with the same hunger in that debut match, we have to go back to being that humble team as we came in the last tournament," Aguilar told reporters via TUDN.

"We have to have the same mentality [as before]. We were [a little arrogant] in that first game, we lacked humility.

"But we know what we have to do. We trust the teammates we have, we have to be humble, go step by step in the obligations that we have as a great team and go for the objective each day."

Even the relations with fans are different

"[Winning the title last May] has changed a lot," Aguilar said. "I can tell you that wherever they see you, they greet you. Wherever they see you they say they feel proud of the team or of the players that belong to the team that got that title that was so much awaited.

"It is the folklore of soccer.... I have noticed a radical change."